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SIVA Gjallarhorn

Exotic weapon

Gjallarhorn

It is time we let the past guide our future. Lord Saladin has asked me to help you forge a mighty weapon. A powerful new Gjallarhorn for a new generation of Iron Lords. Know that when Gjallarhorn is mounted upon your shoulders the Wolfpack of fallen guardians stand at your side, when gjallarhorn howls, the Wolfpack will answer.

Welcome back guardians, today we are diving into the new Gjallarhorn quest line and extracting all the new lore delivered in game. Remember now that there are two versions of Gjallarhorn that exist, the original and the newly SIVA crafted version in Rise of Iron.

To write this script I called in some backup from the Lore masters over at Focus Fire Chat and Destiny lore cast, links to their podcasts are in the description. Also, I cannot take credit for that intro, the last sentence about the Gjallarhorn howling and the Wolf Pack will answering. was taken from Reddit and is one of my favourite non-cannon quotes, thanks to Foshkey for his post. All my social links are in the description and if you are watching this within 2 hours of release, I will be on Twitch right now.

This is myelin games and I hope you enjoy this latest Destiny lore episode.

Let’s start with the original Gjallarhorn and it’s creation. Many will know that Gjallarhorn was created from the armour of fallen guardians following the Battle of Twilight Gap. If you are already familiar with the original story of Gjallarhorn, skip to the time shown on screen to start the new lore. If you are not familiar or just want a reminder, let me explain.

Twilight Gap was the second major Fallen attack on the City, the first being Battle of Six Fronts. Twilight Gap appeared to be led by the Fallen House of Devils, however in reality it was coordinator by the Fallen House of Kings.

This is reinforced in the Paskin, King Baron grimoire card where Prince Uldren says,

“Look at it from the House of Kings’ perspective. Their power is matched only by their cleverness. They rule the Devils from the shadows and came too close to toppling the City not once, but twice. We don’t know much about them, but we know this: the Kings want the Traveler.”

There was one other House at the Battle of Twilight Gap and that was, the House of Winter. This is reinforced by the Ghost Fragment: Fallen 3 card which reads,

“We gathered to fight against our twilight, King and Devil and Winter, all of us but us, the Wolves. Why? What kept us from the Gap?”.

So the House of Kings, Devils and Winter attacked the City but as you likely worked out, the House of Wolves never made it. The Wolf Fleet was approaching Earth, however Prince Uldren intercepted Fallen chatter and the Queen of the Reef, Mara Sov, decided to intervene, stopping the Wolf fleet for joining the Battle and saving the City. That saga is called the Reef Wars, I have entire series on the Reef Wars, the link is in the description.

Even without the House of Wolves, the Fallen still attempted to take the city and bombarded Twilight Gap with artillery fire from the Spider Tanks, the cannons at Twilight Gap returned artillery fire in response. Lord Saladin was in charge of the City Defences, however Lord Shaxx was the one to lead a counter attack, I assume with his personal combat frames.

Lord Shaxx’s grimoire card reads,

“Lord Shaxx is one of the heroes of the Battle of the Twilight Gap, having led the counterattack that pushed the Fallen from the City walls. Fearing that another full-scale assault would be more than the City could repel, Shaxx chose to stay in the City to mentor Guardians in the Crucible.”

This may in fact be why Lord Shaxx and Lord Saladin have a strained relationship, I speculate that Lord Shaxx led a counterstrike or a counter attack without approval of Lord Saladin, who at the time was in charge of the City defenses. Knowing the back story of Lord Saladin and SIVA, you can imagine that he may be hesitant to use a risky maneuver, however Lord Shaxx was happy to accept that risk, this is reinforced in the Crucible mark grimoire card, which reads,

“competition thrives on risk and reward. So Lord Shaxx has been fit to dispense Crucible Marks to those who excel.”

Further adding to the tension, obviously, Lord Shaxx was awarded the title of Lord, I assume without Saladin’s approval. Regardless, of what happened between Shaxx and Saladin, the battle was won, however not after many Guardians had been killed. Feizel Crux a gunsmith would then commemorate the Fallen Guardians by crafting Gjallarhorn from their armor. Victor Lomar would later be confirmed as assisting in the creation however I will get to that in the new lore section, as well as addressing why the Gjallarhorn features the Crest of Alpha Lupi.

Let’s now move onto the new lore surrounding the gjallarhorn we forge in Rise of Iron. One of the first tasks we are given is to collect Iron Wolf medallions. I liken this to the collection of the Guardian armor following Twilight Gap which Feizel Crux used to form the original weapon. Saladin says this in game,

“What do you have…? Do you know what this is? The Iron Lords once wore these wolf medallions into battle. This is a sign. Wolves also adorned the storied Gjallarhorn missile launchers. They were weapons of great power, worthy of an Iron Lord. It is time you forged one of your own. Speak to Tyra Karn, and she will set you on your path.”

Both the Iron Lords and Gjallarhorn are represented by the wolf, I think it very plausible that Lord Saladin influenced the original design of Gjallarhorn, the previous history of the Iron Lords who banded together in the earliest days of the guardians to defend the city from major threats had a wolf represent their cohesiveness, teamwork and eventually sacrifice. There is a possibility Feizel Crux took inspiration from this and therefore incorporated the wolf design into the Gjallarhorn. I think that the gjallarhorn wolf generally represents the unity of civilisation facing the darkness rather than it indicating that it was an Iron Lord weapon or directly linked to the Iron Lords.

The fact that the Crest of Alpha Lupi is identical to the gjallarhorn design may reinforce the symbolism of the wolf. The Dreams of Alpha Lupi grimoire cards appear to document the memories of the Traveler, including the events of the collapse and creation of guardians, therefore the wolf may represent civilisation banding together, guardians forming the wolf pack to fend off the darkness.

After collecting all the medallions (I assume to melt down into weapon parts) we are sent to Bannerfall. Bannerfall is an abandoned tower along the City wall. This is revealed to be the workshop of Feizel Crux where he developed Gjallarhorn. Interestingly, the tower is revealed to be one of eight towers that existed during the height of the City and the Titans held these towers to defend the City.

You will also recognise Bannerfall as the location where New Monarchy defeated the Concordat faction. The Concordat was led by Lysander. This faction was disbanded by the Consensus following the Battle of Twilight Gap. The Ghost Fragment: The City card explains this,

“And so it is agreed. The Concordat shall no longer be recognized among the Consensus. We’ll begin the dismantling right away. But what of those Guardians who have pledged to them? We can’t afford any more banishments… We’ll need to refocus our collective minds on combat. The Speaker’s anxious to regain ground we lost after the Gap.”

Lysander must have started this uprising soon after the Battle of Twilight Gap, around the same time that Feizel Crux was crafting gjallarhorn because the gjallarhorn was almost named after Lysander, the quest reads,

“Hmm, these are combat logs from New Monarchy’s final assault on the Concordat. Still hard to believe a faction right here in the City would try to rise against the Speaker. This is some pretty incendiary propaganda from new Monarchy denouncing Lysander and the Concordat. Glad I wasn’t around in the City for this.”

The accompany mission description reads,

“There was a campaign to call it Lysander’s Folly, but I don’t want people even remembering his name.” —Ikora Rey

So, considering that Feizel Crux’s workshop was at Bannerfall, the location of the battle between new Monarchy and the Concordat, Gjallarhorn was almost name Lysander’s Folly. Folly means lack of good sense or foolishness.

I sort of feel that there is more of a story here between Crux and Lysander however I cannot find any more information. As we progress, we are then tasked with tracking down Feizel Crux’s personal computer in Bannerfall and extracting the blueprints for Gjallarhorn. At this point it is revealed that Victor Lomar was also involved in its design. Prior to the release of Rise of Iron, Feizel Crux was the only mentioned gunsmith involved with Gjallarhorn, however, it makes sense that Victor Lomar also assisted, as together they created other launchers such as Dragon’s Breath and the Truth under the name Crux Lomar. The Beauty in Destruction grimoire card even hints at Feizel Crux and Victor Lomar’s working relationship, Feizel Crux appears to be artist, the designer so to speak, whereas Victor Lomar appears to be the specialist in the destruction aspect. The card seems like Victor is yelling at Feizel. It reads,

“This commission is a commemoration! They deserve something dependable. These men and women did not survive the Gap so that you could make art!” – Victor Lomar, from a transcript of the Project Heimdall development log

By the way, Heimdall is from Norse mythology and Heimdall is the one who actually possess Gjallarhorn.

Apart from these interesting facts about Crux and lomar, you ghost also drops a pretty big bombshell during the mission. Your ghost mentions Charlemagne, yes the Warmind of Mars, which is only mentioned in the sleeper simulant quest and promotion material during the early early days of Destiny. You ghost says,

“Aha! Here we go: Feizel Crux personal blueprint store. Gjallarhorn blueprints. Front and centre. Lets head to his workshop next. These look like components to their royalty line of launchers. Baron, Viceroy… Charlemagne? Huh.”

I have no idea what the means, feel free to place those spin foil hats on and speculate in the comments.

After fighting the Fallen in Bannerfall, which would later be revealed as pure coincidence, the Fallen were actually planning on taking down the fall and we just happened to be there trying to craft gjallarhorn, either way after unknowingly and singlehandedly defending the City, we set off to collect SIVA fragments.

Tyra Karn says this,

“It was a challenge worthy of such a historic weapon, and a great opportunity for study. Lord Saladin has given me leave to improve upon Crux’s original design. For we have access to something he did not: SIVA. You may have already found some caches scattered about the Cosmodrome. We will need a considerable number for what I have in mind. Go, and return when you have what we need.”

Shiro-4 improves upon Gjallarhorn’s design using SIVA. The Beauty in Destruction card reads,

“The refurbished Gjallarhorn carried into battle by the newest Iron Lord is a melding of new and old. The time-tested Crux and Lomar design combined flawlessly with Shiro’s modified SIVA tech. The result: a peerless weapon that embodies beauty in destruction and delivery.”

Shiro-4 would also go on to help us create Outbreak Prime also using SIVA tech. Shiro-4’s grimoire card indicates that he is very skilled at weapons-crafting but this is some next level skill, to incorporate SIVA into a weapon. Even so, Lord Saladin would actually argue the opposite is true, he says this about Shiro,

“Shiro thinks all we need to do is defeat the Fallen. He has no concept of how dangerous SIVA can be.” —Lord Saladin.

Regardless, Shiro uses the light in the creation of Outbreak Prime and I can only assume similar weapon crafting skills were applied to Gjallarhorn. During the Outbreak prime quest, Shiro says,

“This thing needs energy, but not just any charge. I think we can use mismatched patterns of Light to kickstart it. Want to give it a shot? Worst-case scenario? It blows up in our faces.” —Shiro-4

I also wonder if the design of Outbreak Prime, specifically the tracking SIVA mites that closely represent wolf pack rounds was inspired by Gjallarhorn. Chronologically I assume Shiro worked on the SIVA Gjallarhorn first and later fabricated outbreak prime for guardians, maybe Outbreak Prime was influence by Shiro’s experience with Gjallarhorn.

Regardless, after Shiro-4 incorporates SIVA tech into Gjallarhorn we have one final weapon piece to collect from the map skyshock. After collecting the final piece and forging the weapon, Lord Saladin reinforces that the wolf symbolises unity and the sacrifices of those guardians who have fallen before us.

He says,

“You stood against the Fallen as a wolf, as an Iron Lord. You have followed in the footsteps of history and once again secured the future of the City. I can think of no one more deserving to carry the weapon you now bear. Use it well. And remember the sacrifices that you- and others- have made to create it.”

That concludes this latest Destiny Lore episode, if you would like to support the channel leave the phrase “SIVA horn” to acknowledge we incorporated SIVA into its creation, the technology that has caused all of these problems, yet became a solution in the exotic rocket launcher. As usual, it has been a pleasure, this is myelin games. Peace.